Horasis Asia Meeting
Virtual Event, 30 November 2020a Horasis leadership event

ReportInspiring our future© Horasis
2020 – All rights reserved
The publication was prepared in cooperation with IE University, Madrid, Spain.
The statements quoted in the publication do not necessarily represent the views or opinions ofHorasis and IE University. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any
form or by any means.

Upcoming Horasis events:
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5-8 June 2021

Horasis India Meeting, Binh Duong, Vietnam

20-21 June 2021

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24-25 October 2021

Horasis is a global visions community dedicated to inspiring our future. (www.horasis.org)
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Horasis Asia Meeting
Virtual Event, 30 November 2020a Horasis leadership event

Unite. Inspire. Create.
Co-chairs:
Binod K. Chaudhary
Vijay Eswaran
Ben Goertzel
Tatsuo Hatta
Harry Hui
Roger King
George Li
Hank McKinnell
David Pan
Rajiv Podar
Harsh Pati Singhania
Cherie Nursalim
Paul Scanlan
Robert Scharfe
Vinod Sekhar
Gunjan Sinha
Joji Tagawa
Rosemary Tan
Tan Yinglan
Zhi Peng

Chairman, Chaudhary Group, Nepal
Chairman, QI Ltd, Hong Kong
Chief Executive Officer, SingularityNET, Hong Kong SAR
President, Asian Growth Research Institute, JapanFounder and Managing Partner, ClearVue Partners, China
Founder and Chairman, ODS Holdings Inc., Hong Kong
Founder and Managing Partner, Bridge Biohub, China
Chairman, Moody’s, USA
Executive Dean, Schwarzman College, Tsinghua University, China
Managing Director, Podar Enterprise, India
Vice Chairman, JK Paper; President, President AIMA, India
Vice Chair, GITI Group, Indonesia
Chief Transformation Officer, Huawei, China
Chief Executive Officer, Luxembourg Stock Exchange, Luxembourg
Chairman and Group Chief Executive Officer, Petra Group, Malaysia
Chairman, MetricStream, USA
Chief Sustainability Officer, Nissan Motor, JapanFounder and Creative Director, Palam Mesra, Malaysia
Founding Managing Partner, Insignia Ventures Partners, Singapore
President, Tsinghua Asset Management Group, China

Strategic Partner:
City of Kitakyushu
IMC Chamber of Commerce and Industry
Co-organizers:
A-Wing Indonesia (Awina)

Invest Hong Kong

Caspian Week

Oxford Analytica

Cosmic Citizens

Pacific Basin Economic Council (PBEC)

All India Management Association (AIMA)

Philip Morris International

Entrepreneurs’ Organization

Publicize

Global Schools Foundation Singapore

Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University

IE University

Sekhar InstituteMedia Group Indonesia

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Table of Contents

Horasis Asia Meeting Virtual Event – 30 November 2020

4

Foreword

6

Summary9

Summary Topics
Asia’s Future – a Vision from Within . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Family Business: What is the next Chapter post-COVID? . . . 23

Enhancing Asian Economic Development Post-COVID . . . . . . . . 9

The New Role of Asian Youth Post-COVID . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Exemplary Leadership in Asia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Developing a Coherent Digital Presence across Asia . . . . . . . 24

Reducing Trade Friction between Asian Nations Post COVID-19 . . 10

Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Work post-COVID. . 24

Fin-Tech is Developing Rapidly in Asia despite COVID-19 . . . . 10

Profit and Purpose in the Pandemic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Equitable Development of South-East Asia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

The Global Vision of Asian Female Entrepreneurs . . . . . . . . 25

Effectively using Renewable Energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

New World Disorder. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Asian Solutions for an Impact-led Recovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

The New-Old Trade Corridors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Trust in a Virtual World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Cooperation between Asian Cities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Addressing Asia’s Gender Gap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Implanting Industry 4.0 into the Future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

The Complex Geopolitics of Asia through Post-COVID . . . . . . 13

Cluster Entrepreneurship: Overcoming
the Negative Impact of COVID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Shaping the Future of Work Post-COVID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Envisioning Asia’s Future Digital Economy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
The Centrality of Green Growth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Revitalizing Economic Growth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Realization of a Sustainable Society Triggered by COVID-19 . . . 14
Supply and Demand: the Global COVID Economic Crisis . . . . . 15
Months of Education Lost due to COVID-19. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Technology: Harnessing the Potential to Disrupt . . . . . . . . . 27
Pivot or Stay the Course? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Voice of the Voiceless in Times of Crisis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Report Launch: Understanding Family Businesses in China . . 30
Accelerating Japanese Economic Dynamism
to combat COVID. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Post-COVID Marketing - Local vs International Branding . . . 30

Kitakyushu’s Efforts Leading a Transition towarda Sustainable Asia by a PPP model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

The Remote Manager: Coping Post-COVID . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Aspiring to the SDG Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Co-Developing Asian Regions Post-COVID . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Pivoting your Businesses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Supporting Cross-boundary Entrepreneurship. . . . . . . . . . . 31

Managing Funds in the Post-COVID Era . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

The Asian CEO in an Age of Disruption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

China’s Greater Bay Area: Creating Extraordinary Opportunities . . 18

Talent Mobility in APAC under COVID and Beyond . . . . . . . 32

India’s Investment Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Indonesia’s Transformation into a Digital Economy . . . . . . . 33

Advancing the Fifth Industrial Revolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

The Impact of the US Elections across Asia . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

The Next big Global Issues and their Relevance for Asia . . . . . . 19

Shaping the Asian Century Post-COVID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

On Being Vigilant Against a New Cold War . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Summary: Expectations Beyond COVID – An Asian View . . . . 34

The Greening of Blockchain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

IE Masterclass: Positive Leadership Practices
during Times of Turbulence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Preparing for an Entrepreneurial Gale Post-COVID . . . . . . . . . 20
Entertainment as a Catalyst for Trade and Cultural Diplomacy. . 20
Asia: United in Diversity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Asia and Global Economic Outlook: Looking beyond COVID . . 21
China and its New Economy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Why Asia is the Champion of Globalization. . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
How to Catch an Asian Unicorn ?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
ESG Investing in Asia Post-COVID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Re-shaping Asia’s Environmental Venture Capital Industry . . . . 36
Business-Led Solutions for a Changing Asia . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Digital Transformation of the Philippine Economy:
Keynote by Secretary Gregorio Honasan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

The Greater Caspian Region: Spearheading Shared Leadership. . . 37

Reboot, Reform and Resurge the Indian Economy . . . . . . . . . . 22

Horasis Young Visionaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

COVID is Temporally Hampering Asian Innovation . . . . . . . . . 23

Announcing the 2021 Horasis Asia Meeting . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

5

Foreword
By Frank-Jürgen Richter,
Chairman, Horasis, Switzerland

Horasis convened the 2020 Horasis Asia
Meeting as a virtual meeting using its new
ground-breaking digital conferencing platform.
400 of the foremost business and politicalleaders from Asia and the world gathered to
discuss the profound economic, political andsocial disruptions caused by COVID-19 andother forces. Delegates interacted with key
political and business leaders to jointly develop
solutions for dealing with the current crisisand to shape a durable economic system for
Asia’s post-COVID future.
The annual Horasis Asia Meeting is Asia’s
premier gathering of the region’s most seniorleaders from business and government. The
location of the meeting rotates annually andrecently has been held in Bangkok, Thailand(2016), Kolkata, India (2017) and Binh Duong
New City, Vietnam (2018, 2019). Now, within
the COVID epidemic, the meeting has turned
to a digital delivery, but its focus remains upon
Asia – to present a systemic view of activities
affecting the drivers of Asia’s economic successand how Asian businesses interact regionallyas well as globally.

Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Road Transport & Highways, India

caught out by the rapidity and severity of thepandemic and its effect on the economy. She
expected IT to underpin future growth andwell-being.

Fabrizio Hochschild, Under-Secretary
General, Special Adviser on Preparations for
75th United Nations Anniversary, United Nations, USA explained how the UN developed
the concept of UN75 to celebrate its 75 years.
It recorded over a million responses to dialogues that evolved a theme ‘The future wewant – it’s the UN we need’. Ideas that were
echoed by Nguyen Minh Vu, Vice Ministerof Foreign Affairs, Vietnam who noted many
Asian nations are very diverse – and believes
this is a strength. Its pluralism will lead tocoherence and a competitive advantage throughRamon Lopez, Secretary of Trade andincreasing dialogue, ensuring that cultural
Industry, The Philippines noted how COVID
diversity supports a wide range of heritage andhad disrupted social lives, and trade disruption can raise quality of life. Hank McKinnell,
was an issue. But the Philippines is to redevelop Chairman, Moody’s, USA suggested when USA
economic priorities towards the healthcare
re-enters Asia mutual understanding will be
sector pivoting operations to products and ser - needed. Cherie Nursalim, Vice Chair, GITI
vices urgently needed during and beyond theGroup, Indonesia talking on women empowerhealth crisis. Meutya Viada Hafid, Chairman ment, says this is within the SDGs and willof Commission I, House of Representatives,support new finance models, digitization thatIndonesia also remarked how Indonesia had
aids urban/rural integration, and new educaplayed a strong role pre-COVID in pharma and tional modes will and must engage the young.
medical tourism yet was, like many nations,
Gregorio Honasan, Secretary of Infor ma-

6

tion and Communications Technology, The
Philippines noted that across the economiesof the Philippines and the Pacific region IT
infrastructure is seen as a key to growth,
permitting urban and rural activities to belinked to enable seamless development.
Christopher Hui, Secretary for Financial
Services and the Treasury, Hong Kong SAR
suggested that Hong Kong may become theworld’s newest financial centre. It has seen hugebenefit from globalisation and has continuing
accords in place. Sansern Samalapa, Vice
Minister of Commerce, Thailand noted that
Asia’s emerging manufacturing hub in Thailand
was mediated by greater use of IT that promoted food security. Thailand’s strengths willencourage more investment and trade with
better business practices. Indeed, IT develop ment in India is also promoting a cashlessnation, though much work is to be doneemphasised Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Road
Transport & Highways, Shipping and of Micro,
Small and Medium Enterprises, India. ‘India
will become the manufacturing centre of world
as it improves quality and reduces costs toincrease exports,’ he said.
Delegates discussed how to travel the paththrough Asia’s big transitions and how to adopt
innovation to build a resilient Asia. A few days
before this meeting, the ASEAN nations met
and agreed a new accord – the Regional
Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).
However, Binod K. Chaudhary, Chairman,
Chaudhary Group, Nepal worried that theregion has also 30 % of the world’s poorest,
surviving on less than $ 1/day. Harsh Pati
Singhania, Vice Chairman, JK Paper; Presi dent, President AIMA, India affirmed that India
will keep a watchful stance on RCEP, and will
join when it is clear there is a level playing
field. Vinod Sekhar, Chairman and Group
Chief Executive Officer, Petra Group, Malaysia
accepts Asia (and RCEP) varies politically from
non-democratic to democratic; with Malaysia
being centrally located, and multi-faceted

across its own political and social spectrum.
It is helpful, suggests Vijay Eswaran, Exe cutive Chairman, QI Group, Hong Kong that
Southeast Asia plays a political middle role.
Zhi Peng, President, Tsinghua Asset Management Group, China, thought China wasemerging stronger from COVID crisis. She
emphasised China’s 14th 5-year plan which
replaces high-speed growth with high-quality
growth. Paul Scanlan, Chief Transformation
Officer, Huawei, China needs educationalists
and politicians to talk facts, and importantly
develop trust.
Kenji Kitahashi, Mayor of Kitakyushu, Japanhighlighted Kitakyushu’s initiatives – the city
was recognized by the OECD as a Green
Growth City; as well as an Eco-Model City,
Future City, and SDGs Future City by theJapanese government – it is pressing ahead
with the first of its kind on city-level SDGs in
the world. He welcomed Horasis to the city
for its next Horasis Asia Meeting in 2021.
Horasis offered the conceptual backbone andaction platform in this meeting to advance Asia’s
recovery – envisioning and implementing novel
business models, new political cooperation anddeep social cohesion. It is not possible to returnto the old models – new global stake-holders
will emerge to make calmer the continuing
turbulence.

Christopher Hui, Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury,
Hong Kong

7

Sansern Samalapa, Vice Minister of Commerce, Thailand speaking about ‘Asia United in Diversity’

Key take aways:• The management of COVID-19 has shownhow nations can cooperate globally in its
management and potentially its cure. And
in Asia the demand for healthcare products
from drugs to protective gear has created amuch larger global supply industry.

• As COVID is managed or cured we must
look to greater multilateralism and to
manage diversity carefully so as to meetthe goals of the SDGs.
• And as firms recover from COVID theymust incorporate greener work processes
and expunge pollutions to mitigate all
climate change effects.

• The COVID confinement has created new
ways of working – at home and in factories
as social distancing must be observed.
• Across Asia there are three important
Factories closed, then reopened albeit
working at a slower rate until the process
thrusts: develop thoughtful and criticalwere rearranged. At home work was also
education, develop production and supply
complicated as children had to be educated,chains that minimise energy consumption,
mostly digitally; and in parallel, office workand to underpin most ventures the developmigrated to homes. New methods of blen ment of the IT that binds all together.
ded teaching were developed and in future
will be developed further.
• As ASEAN illustrated, even in diversity it
is possible to create new accords. RCEP
may indicate one way in which Asia-Pacificvalues can be harnessed for new growth,developing wealth and well-being for many.

8

Summary
By IE University

This Horasis summit welcomed 400 of themost involved political and economic leaders to
discuss disruptions and changes. Extraordinary
times need extraordinary transformations.

Asia’s Future – a Vision from Within‘Asia’s priorities involve environmental protection, less conflict, and better respect tohuman rights,’ opened Fabrizio Hochschild,
Under-Secretary-General, United Nations, USA.
‘Hong Kong is a huge beneficiary of multilateralism, free trade/globalization; wider
technology uses to facilitate new economy incl.
FinTech to continue as a premier financial hub;manage climate change risks and sustainability,’
said Christopher Hui, Secretary for Financial
Services and the Treasury, Hong Kong SAR.
‘Post COVID-19, economic cooperation
through RCEP agreement will complement
PH domestic reforms incl. infrastructuredevelopment program and sector liberalism’
concluded Ramon Lopez, Secretary of Tradeand Industry, The Philippines.

is technology, access to information to apply
AI-based algorithms.’ Cherie Nursalim,
Vice Chair, GITI Group, Indonesia talking on
women empower ment, says this is within the
SDGs and will support new finance models.
Hank McKinnell, Chairman, Moody’s,
USA, concluded by saying, ‘Asian countries
have solidified trade cooperation’

Exemplary Leadership in Asia
Moderator Tsutomu Ishiai, Deputy Managing
Editor, The Asahi Shimbun, opened the discus sion saying, ‘dealing with digital transformationand political changes may change the style ofleadership.’ There was a general consensus on
the need for agility and COVID-19 causing a
reset requiring realignment. Tien Yen Trinh,CEO, Talentnet, Vietnam, identified interesting
trends in 3 areas namely: I) Leadership model,
II) Organisation Agility, III) Agility Leadership.
Balwant Jain, Founder and Chief Executive
Officer, Optimum Solutions, Singapore added,‘How you structure your agile structure in theway of working differently can be found moredifficult because we have to change ourselves
first before we can lead others to change.’
Yan Liu, CEO, Biocaptivate, USA, called
COVID-19 a final stressor that is causing thedecline of the western-centric cultural status

Enhancing Asian Economic
Development Post-COVID
Asian countries have been pursuing economic
integration via long-term working groups:
the COVID pandemic has accentuated greater
cooperation, explained Tan Yinglan,
Founding Managing Partner, Insignia Ventures
Partners, Singapore. Speaking in relation tothis, Tatsuo Hatta, President, Asian Growth
Research Institute, Japan said ‘divert a moresignificant portion of foreign aid to improvethe medical system in developing countries.’
Paul Scanlan, Chief Transformation Officer,
Huawei, China, further added, ‘If you want totransform industries, then one of the key things

Ramon Lopez, Secretary of Trade and Industry, The Philippines

9quo. Santosh Kaveti, Founder, ProArch,
USA, said ‘tomorrow is here as a result of
COVID-19’ and that leaders must focus on
their business, people, inclusion, diversity,
embrace tech, and build resilience.

Reducing Trade Friction between
Asian Nations Post COVID-19
Siddharth Poddar, Founder, StoneBench,
Singapore, opened the discussion by asking
about the assessment of Trade frictions between the US and China. According to Sashi
Reddi, Managing Partner, SRI Capital, USA
those frictions will not disappear even under
Joe Biden’s administration. Howard Wu,
President, Can-Achieve, Canada, found it
interesting thinking of what will happen after
the power change in the US and mentioned that
Chinese companies need to adapt to new rules
set up by the Chinese state. A different perspective was shared by Lee Cheng, Shareholder,Maschoff Brennan, USA who is optimistic
about the impact of the trade conflict on Asian
economies. In the context of the influence of
Asian economies, John West, Executive
Director, Asian Century Institute, Australia,
was of the impression that RCEP is a good step
into more presence of Asian Economies on theinternational stage but it is still not comparablewith the TPP agreement.

Nguyen Minh Vu, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, Vietnam

10

Fin-Tech is Developing Rapidly
in Asia despite COVID-19
Adversity drives innovation. ‘Fintech is reallygenerating a lot of interest because of
COVID-19,’ said Peter Brimble, Senior Technical Advisor, DaNa Facility, Myanmar while‘Fintech means many different things to different people,’ added Amandeep Midha,
Founder, Nerd9, Denmark. ‘With all doors
closed it was very easy for us to experiment andget concrete results,’ said Sindhu Bhaskar,CEO, EST Global Inc., USA making for aunique opportunity. ‘What we have seen with
the COVID situation is that digital-savvy players
will gain market share,’ said Tom Ludescher,CEO, Asia & EMEA, Entsia International, Sin gapore. ‘The only way to solve this problem ofcredit is to combine the traditional knowledgeof underwriting and combining it with smart
digital analytics,’ added Shachindra Nath,
Executive Chairman, Ugro Capital, India. The
key support is a need in networks and infrastructure with governments needing to ensure
the base is there.

Equitable Development ofSouth-East Asia
The question of equitable development has been
one that has been looming since the integrationof the ASEAN region. As per Alan Lau, President, Anglo Euro Energi Indonesia, Indonesia‘There need to be 4 fundamentals in order tohave equitable development in Southeast Asiaand these are inclusive development, inclusive
growth, community resilience as well as afunding mechanism led by the government’.
Takeshi Izuka, President, Kirirom Instituteof Technology, Cambodia further added, ‘Poor
countries have the best path for growth but
the key to this will be education. One barrier
to this is the different sanctions from different
countries. We need innovation despite thesesanctions in order to grow’. Usama Fayyad,
CEO of Open Insights, USA emphasized bysaying ‘There are great opportunities in the
ASEAN region. In order to succeed, there must

be a push for regional thinking as well as a push
for a startup ecosystem’.

Effectively using Renewable Energy
Murthy R Nuni, Managing Director, Marshal
Global Renewable Power, Vietnam opened thediscussion on the effective use of renewableenergy by stating, ‘Most Asian countries havehigh economic growth, and new demand iscoming from this growth. Renewable energy
has to first cater to this growth.’ Further,
Ruth P. Briones, CEO, Greenergy Solutions,
The Philippines, said ‘There is a need for a
combination of regulatory, technology, andfinancial aspects to move forward withrenewables.’ Ichsan Ichsan, Advisor, PT
Awina Sinergi International, Indonesia, added,‘Nuclear and hydrogen will be the base ofenergy safety in future; wind and solar can besupportive energy sources for small villages
and private households.’ William Bohnett,
Chairman, Smithsonian Environmental ResearchCenter, USA, concluded the session stating,‘sustainable and renewables community is
cautiously optimistic with new incoming president Biden; there has been significant progressin power, but more rapid electrification of thetransport fleet is needed.’

Gregorio Honasan, Secretary of Information and Communications
Technology, The Philippines

environmental and social good,’ said Helena
Montgomery, Principal, Montgomery Investments, USA. Further, Alex Manson, CEO,
Standard Chartered Ventures, Singapore said
‘Impact investing will be like hygiene, nonnegotiable.’ ‘Vision and leadership is thepremise behind speaking of impact investing,’
Steven V. Melnik, Founder, PoliticalAnd
BusinessDiplomacy.org, USA concluded.

Asian Solutions for an
Impact-led Recovery
The impact of COVID-19 on Asia has beenenormous; however, in adversity, there is an
opportunity. ‘Impact-investing is pragmati cally trying to solve bigger solutions,’ opened
Leon Toh, Executive Director, Damson Capital, Singapore. ‘Ultimately all financial firms
would incorporate financial and material ESG
criteria into their investment criteria,’ added
Daniel Kern, CIO, TFC Financial Manage ment, USA. Further, ‘All comes down to 3P;
People, Prosperity and Planet,’ said ChristianSchmitz, Founder, PDIE – Purpose-Driven
Innovation, Japan. ‘All projects are related
to measures in terms of time, profit, andCherie Nursalim, Vice Chair, GITI Group, Indonesia

11Meutya Viada Hafid, Chairman of Commission I,
House of Representatives, Indonesia

Trust in a Virtual World
Felipe Amaral, Global Communications &Partnerships Manager, Philip Morris Interna tional, USA opened the panel stating, ‘As acompany, you need more than just a positive
agenda.’ Building trust is complex and takes
time. According to David Miller, Director
Faith & Work Initiative, Princeton University,
USA ‘the people who exude trust are those
who have a passion for what they do and areauthentic.’ Trust also depends on culture, as‘the starting point is distrust in Asian cultures’
added Jane Lin-Baden, CEO North Asia,
Publicis Groupe, China, and brands have toprove themselves worthy to consumers.
Conversely, in the West, consumers tend to lend
their trust more readily to brands unless thebrands give them a reason not to. ‘Also, trust

Hank McKinnell, Chairman, Moody’s, USA

12

Gunjan Sinha, Chairman, MetricStream, USA

Robert Scharfe, Chief Executive Officer,
Luxembourg Stock Exchange, Luxembourg

and safety are intricately related and COVID19 has dramatically raised brand expectationsof consumers to do good,’ as concluded byFrederique Covington, Senior Vice President, Asia Pacific, Visa, Singapore

Addressing Asia’s Gender Gap
Asia is still lagging in gender equality, though
individual countries vary. ‘Policy should mandate
gender equality.’ opined Deborah Wang,
Kingdom Investment and Development, USA.
‘Logical and fair voice can be heard. The world
cannot grow without women’s participation,’
added Radhika Haribhakti, Former Chair person, FWWB, India. ‘Successful women are
called losers if they are single. Women have theright to choose a lifestyle,’ expressed Zoe Guo,
Co-founder, M-Bridge Cultural and Creative
Co, China. ‘Women are very competent, bemore confident in ourselves to take a leader ship position,’ added Bonnie Liao, Executive
Director, Social Enterprise Research Academy
Hong Kong. ‘When I secured 150 million funds
to support female-funded ventures, no women
applied for it. Confidence is important.’ said
Ingrid Vanderveldt, Founder, Vanderveldt
Global Investments, USA. ‘Uplifting womenis essential for the world economy,’ concluded
Preeti Dubey, Founder Strive High, Singapore.

Shaping the Future of Work
Post-COVID

Panel – Effectively using Renewable Energy

The Complex Geopolitics of Asia
through Post-COVID‘For over 5000 years Asia was the preeminent
global power. China’s leadership at the turn ofthe century is likely to represent a return tothe historical norm,’ said Shirley Yu, Asia
Fellow, Ash Center, Harvard Kennedy School,
USA. ‘Its growth on the world stage will reshape
not just Asian but global geopolitics,’ added
Stacy Kenworthy, Chief Executive Officer,
HellaStorm, USA According to Samrendra
Mohan Kumar, Co-founder and Managing
Director, MitKat Advisory Services, India,‘Economics is the uniting factor across Asia.’‘Regime legitimacy needs to come with performance,’ said Harukata Takenaka, Professor,
National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies,Japan. Taking the conversation forward,
Katsuyuki Tochimoto, Founder, M-Theory
Inc., Japan said ‘How to deal with individual
rights and freedom and government control is
becoming a very important issue.’ Richard
Hames, Founder & Chairman, Centre for the
Future, Thailand, concluded the session bystating, ‘Asia is a melting pot of many culturaldifferences. Perhaps it is too easy to get carriedaway by the differences and ignore many factorsthat provide cohesion’.

It is important to reskill the workforce, digitalize and have organizational flexibility; empower
employees because ‘happy people (cause) happy
customers and happy shareholders’ stated
Atul Temurnikar, Executive Chairman
Global Schools Foundation, Singapore.
Lockdowns have facilitated automation and ‘thefuture of work is going to be a tango between
automation, AI and a digital strategy’ informed
Rajiv Ahuja, President, Startek, India.
‘COVID-19 has made the world a leapfrog in
5-7 years of digital adoption’ added Abhi
Shah, VC, President, Startek, India. Companiesare ‘embracing remote working and thinking
about shutting down ... their commercial
spaces, allowing better quality of life’ concluded Rhona Parouty, President, Empoweringa Billion Women, USA, Yoshiki Sasaki, CEO,Japan Strategic Capital, Japan and Mayra
Andrea, Founder and Chief Executive Officer,
CIpta Graha Holding, Indonesia.

Envisioning Asia’s Future
Digital Economy‘Digital Transformation is a topic that is key
for our economies and society at large,’ stated
Xiaoyin Qu, Founder, Run The World, USA.
‘In our world today, digital transformation is
becoming increasingly important and this has
been emphasized with the current happenings
in the world,’ said Kouhei Kurihara, CoFounder, Privacy by Design Lab, Japan. Rishi
Mehra, CEO, Wishfin, India, further added,‘In terms of transformation, it has always been
the implementation piece that has always been
the problem. There needs to be a push for theavailability of infrastructure to support thistype of transformation.’ However, according
to Louis Li, Chief Executive Officer, PacificFounder Ventures, China, the infrastructure
currently in place is not ready to support large
scale transformation. There is still much to
be improved on. It was also emphasized by
Li Haoyuan, Founder,Alluxio, USA, that in an

13Panellists discussed how to address and tackle Asia’s Gender Gap

increasingly digital world, ‘the most advanced
companies are data-driven. The data gathered
gives insights and value to its users. Digital is
the trend and the future at least for the next
20-30 years.’

The Centrality of Green Growth
The industrial revolution and its demand forenergy polluted local regions yet it is a global
problem. Camille Levy, CEO, Asia Pacific,
and China – Steam Power, GE Power spoke
about the importance of balance between
traditional energy sources versus renewable.
Bo Inge Andersson, President,Yazaki North,and Central America, Europe, and Africa, USA,then said ‘China is fast moving into electricity
because it has no oil, pollution is an issue andthey would like world leadership on electricalvehicles.’ Michael Walsh, Secretary-General,
PBEC, Hong Kong, commented ‘often there isa rush or over-exuberance into renewable overlooking the backups needed, eg; California.’
Camille Levy then advocated, ‘there should be
an aim for a price for carbon in order to incentivize advanced technology and for FDI withprivate money to go to most effective places.’
There was a call for Asian governments to focus
on energy supply more than energy security.

14

Akiko Fujita, Anchor and Reporter,Yahoo Finance, USA

Revitalizing Economic Growth
The session spoke about the hardest-hit industry
in APAC: tourism and hospitality. Nicholas
Johnson, CEO, Economists Without Borders,
Australia stresses the reallocation of capital to
the tech sector, decentralization of the workforce as a structural and permanent shift in
APAC. Australian government schemes shallassist in the long term too i.e. need to address
the failing small businesses which have to repay
fixed expenses accumulated over the COVID19 and rising unemployment. ‘The real picture
will be seen next year,’ opined Anne Nalder,
CEO, Small Business Association of Australia,
Australia. Stanley Loh, World Capacity
Builders, Canada, further informed, ‘The Government is to implement the “Dana Harta” act
to buy hotel rooms to induce domestic travel.’
Neelima Parasker, SnapIT Solutions, USA,further informed, ‘Kansas focuses on healthrelated tech, education, workforce, and small
businesses.’Realization of a Sustainable Society
Triggered by COVID-19‘Normalizing WFH, the gig economy becoming
mainstream, more international alliances, andmore environmental consciousness are now
seen as COVID-19 trends,’ opened Worsak

Xiaoyin Qu, Founder, Run The World, USA

Tatsuo Hatta, President, Asian Growth ResearchInstitute, Japan

Kanok-Nukulchai, Executive Director,
Chulalongkorn School of Integrated Innovation,
Thailand. Adding to this, Neha Berlia, Memberof Management Board, Apeejay Stya Group,
India, said ‘since COVID-19 there’s been a hugeincrease in regular meetings and interactions,though online.’ ‘There is an opportunity toincorporate sustainable principles through re gulators by assigning incentives for partnershipprograms,’ Claire Chan, Managing Partner,
SZLT-iSource Consulting Group, Taiwan said
‘small businesses will need to find new andinnovative ways to see if they are not too demanding on natural resources.’ Further to this,George Wang, President, E-BI Inter national,
USA, concluded, ‘This pandemic has accelerated the change ... and it is important to sharpen
skills.’Supply and Demand:
the Global COVID Economic Crisis
History reveals that most economic crises arecaused by political or fiscal mismanagement.
‘The year 2020 though, is one of the major
crises which is led by both supply and demandissues’ commented Aditya Singh, Director of
Athena School of Management. Further to this,Tommy Leong, Zone President of Schneider
Electric, Singapore, said ‘among various government initiatives, there is a massive digitalization

Zhi Peng, President, Tsinghua Asset Management Group, China

investment trend in Asia, aiming to drive
efficiency and agility.’ Saurabh Shah, CEOof Universal Business and Corporate Services
Centre, India, thinks that the current economiccrisis drives supply chain innovation to focus
on resilience, reconfiguration, and responsiveness. ‘India, in particular, was pointed out tohave an uptrend recovery with - 0.6 % growth
in manufacturing and 144 million tonnages
production in projected agricultural growth,
despite declining GDP since 2016,’ added
Rajiv Raghunath, CEO of Wellversed
Media, India.

Months of Education Lost
due to COVID-19‘Due to the pandemic, students have had tolearn at home, be taught by ill-equipped
parents using poor technical aids,’ opened
Alejandro Reyes, Associate Professor, Univer sity of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. ‘Remotelearning demands dedication by students andparents,’ said Sushma Paul Berlia, President,
Apeejay Stya & Svran Group, India.
‘Nevertheless, the spirit is that we will go
beyond our own comfort zone and are now
breaking barriers on how we are perceiving
education in India in the next century,’ added
Divya Lal, Founder, Fliplearn Education,
India. According to Manfred Zeuch, VP,

15

Panel – Revitalizing Economic Growth

Concordia University of Edmonton, Canada,‘the hybrid learning format is a good way
forward’ especially since it can be adapted todifferent situations such as pre-recorded videos
for remote areas with low connectivity. Also,
Michele Notari, Professor, Bern Universityof Teacher Education, Switzerland, mentioned,‘we have to be careful about what happens after
COVID-19 because there are some things thatwill be missing from the future workforce.’‘If we are continuing with blended learning,technology needs to catch up to allow soft
skills to be effectively trained,’ said Adrian
Mutton, Founder & Chief Executive Officer,
Sannam S4, USA.

Kitakyushu’s Efforts Leading a
Transition toward a Sustainable Asia
by a PPP model‘Kitakyushu has rebuilt itself to become aneco-model city through PPP with clusters ofenvironmental industries’, opened Shiko
Hayashi, Programme Director, Kitakyushu
Urban Centre, IGES, Japan. Mayumi Oda,
Executive Director, Environment Bureau,
City of Kitakyushu, Japan, further continued
by saying, ‘Kitakyushu is becoming a model
SDG city, aiming for zero carbon by 2050.
The industries, local government, and residents spearheaded environmental initiatives
to overcome past pollution.’ ‘Proper waste

16

Atul Temurnikar, Founder, Global Schools Foundation

management is essential for sustainable urban
development and we focus on waste to energy
technology‘, Mitsukane Mori, General
Manager, Nippon Steel Engineering, Japan,
pointed out. ‘We treat waste through thermal
reactions using superheated steam that do not
generate dioxins or CO2’, added Tomoaki
Ito, CEO, Oneworld Corporation, Japan.
‘Our mission is to find solutions for social
challenges such as air pollution which is a
byproduct of economic activity,’ Toshihiko
Yanagi, Managing Director, NCT Malaysia,
Malaysia, concluded.

Aspiring to the SDG Goals
The pandemic has given a good opportunity to‘reset the relationship between governments,
business and civil society’ opened Michael
Yeoh, President, KSI Strategic Institute for
Asia Pacific, Malaysia. ‘More collaboration
between governments to give grants to startups that can contribute to the SDGs is needed’,
added Nhat Vuong, Co-Founder, The Happy
Turtle Straw, Switzerland. ‘Governments cantake a holistic view and bring data-driven
innovations,’ suggested, Jithesh Shetty,
Founder, Qwiklabs, USA. But, ‘there is a lotof politicization of the interpretation of dataon major technology platforms,’ responded
Lou Marinoff, Professor of Philosophy, The
City College of New York, USA. To realize SDG

Fabrizio Hochschild, Under-Secretary
General, United Nations, USA

Panel – Kitakyushu’s Efforts Leading a Transition toward a Sustainable Asia by a PPP model

goals, it will be helpful if ‘more governmentsin the region require mandatory sustainability
repor ting,’ concluded Ravi Chidambaram,
President, and Co-Founder, TC Capital,
Singapore.

Pivoting your Businesses
Joe Hyrkin, CEO, Issuu, USA, started bystating, ‘it’s important to remember that we’ve
done this before. It’s just one more adjustmentin the course of running your business.’
Matthew Ho, Group CEO, Shopper360
Group, Malaysia defining the future of work
said ‘we focused on how do we find new problems to solve? We worked to try and think onbehalf of the client what they need and how tomeet the need.’ Firdaus Kharas, Chairman,
Chocolate Moose Media, Canada, said ‘We haveto relearn everything. The one characteristic
looked for in all employees is creative thinking.’
Vikas Sharan, CEO, Regalix, USA, said
‘1 million SME experiences was pretty humbling. What would have needed months andyears to come, happened automatically.’ Lastly,
Yat Siu, Co-Founder, Animoca Brands, Hong
Kong validated that ‘more people were spending
online – became consistent. Broadly speaking,this is to be the future of work.’

Managing Funds in
the Post-COVID Era
The moderator for this session was Shai Oster,
Asia Bureau Chief of The Information, Hong
Kong SAR. He began by saying, ‘A lot haschanged in the COVID-19 period and evenconferences are not held in lobbies of hotels but
are instead conducted over Zoom calls only.’‘Asian Governments and their central banks
have striven to boost their economies as theirwork forces have moved into self-isolation. This
has increased global debt issuance by trillionsof dollars,’ said Michael Blake, Chief Executive Asia, Union Bancaire Privée, Singapore.
‘How will private-equity, venture capital, hedge
funds, asset management, angel investments andfamily offices manage in post-COVID times?’,
asked Thian Chew, Managing Partner, Polar
Ventures, Hong Kong. Matilda Ho, Founder,

Keith Bradsher, Shanghai Bureau Chief, New York Times,
chairing a plenary panel

17Panel – Realization of a Sustainable Society Triggered by COVID-19

Bits x Bites, China, said ‘liquidity has dramatically decreased in this year in the capital market
and the biggest risk in the horizon in the foodsector is the availability of the growth of thecapital.’ Daniel Koppelkamm, Managing
Partner, Convergence Partners, Switzerland
concluded by saying, ‘India is the largest market
outside of China but the average spending con sumer power is a fraction of what it is in China.’

China’s Greater Bay Area: Creating
Extraordinary Opportunities
Stephen Phillips, Director-General, Invest
Hong Kong opened the panel by asking ‘What
are the investment opportunities in the development of the Greater Bay Area? What decisive
policies are called for?’ According to Tony Verb,
Founder, Greater Bay Ventures & Advisors,
Hong Kong SAR, he economy is consideredthe 10th largest on a global level. ‘The size,
innovation capabilities and interconnectivity of
the Hong Kong-Guangdong-Macao Greater Bay
Area create opportunities for decades to come,’
said Winston Mok, Private Investor andColumnist, South China Morning Post, China.
Fred Wang, Chairman, Salon Media, Hong
Kong SAR, mentioned that ‘the younger
generation has a lot of opportunities ahead ofthem within the media landscape because thebandwidth of the soon to come 5G internet.’
Therefore, ‘China holds the potential to pro -18

vide great opportunities within the country
and how the GPA matters for the rest of theworld too,’ added Edward Tse, Founder andChief Executive Officer, Gao Feng Advisory
Company, China

India’s Investment Policy
Richard Rekhy, Member of the Board,
KPMG, UAE opened the panel talking about
the significant disruptions COVID-19 hasbrought in the world. Girish Bhagat, Foun ding Partner, KnowGenix Global Technology
Partners, India said ‘FDI inflows have doubled
from the US $ 20 billion in 2014 to the US $51 billion by 2019 and by 2024 India would
be at the US $ 100 billion, making India top
5th country in terms of FDI inflows.’ Vijay
Sambamurthi, Founder, Lexygen, India thenmentioned that regulatory approvals can be
improved and a single-window clearance cangive confidence to investors. Sudha Bhushan,
Co-Founder, Taxpert Professionals, India said‘the government has done well, both on
statutory requirements and taxation fronts.’
Aditya Birla, Founder, Svran-Apeejay Jour nalism Foundation, India added, ‘great work
done by the government has been subdued bydecisions of low-level government functionaries
and local bodies. Such decisions by local bodies
should go through the inter-ministry government panel.’Panel – On Being Vigilant Against a New Cold War

Advancing the Fifth
Industrial Revolution
Wolfgang Lehmacher, Associate Director,
Corporate Value Associates, Hong Kong opened
by asking what is the 5th industrial revolution?
David Armitage, CEO, Velocity Solutions
Group, said ‘While people spend a lot of timetalking about the 3rd and 4th industrial revolution, I see them as part of a continuation ofdigital transformation and such is similar for the
5th industrial revolution.’ Vadim Tarasov,Partner, Advanced Autonomous Solutions Fund,
Hong Kong SAR said ‘You can use informationfrom AI but you need more compassion to makepeople feel better and must know how to use
technology.’ Frank von Seth, CEO, cyan AG,
Austria added, ‘Before we only had a tangible
revolution and now it’s an intangible revolution.’ Wolfgang then concluded, ‘technology is
unstoppable, a part of humanity, but we have tofocus more on the governance area and understand the individual role and the collective
responsibility that comes with it.’Rajiv Podar, Managing Director,
Podar Enterprise, India

that the need to address this problem.
Pranav Bhanage, CEO, Petronas Lubricant(India), India, spoke about the influence of
pandemic which increased the speed of auto mation/digitalization. In the context of AI
impact in predicting the future crisis, Armen
Orujyan, Founding CEO, Foundation forArmenian Science and Technology, Armenia
said ‘although the horizontal depth of AI isbig, the vertical depth is still insufficient tohave reasoning capabilities of human beingsand is not able to predict future crises.’ Ivan
Tselichthev, Professor, Niigata University ofManagement, Japan further said ‘Asian Eco nomies are in the worst shape and the future
growth is in danger considering the impact ofthe pandemic on the demand/employability.’

On Being Vigilant Against
a New Cold War‘The US and China seem intent on mutually
escalating their trade friction by widening
their restrictive scope,’ said Wang Huiyao,
Founder & President, Center for China &The Next big Global Issues and their Globalization, China. ‘Two areas most impor Relevance for Asia
tant to the US and China are carbon restraint
Niraj Sharan, CEO, Aura, USA opened byand pharmaceuticals when it comes to business’,
mentioning global issues such as climate change stated Michael Johnston, Member of theor pollution. Subsequently, Paraga Agrawal, Board, The Capital Group Companies, USA.
CEO, JanaJal, Singapore, outlined the serious - ‘With President-elect Joe Biden, the approachness of the water problem in India and stated will be more focused on collaboration rather

19

Stephen Phillips, Director General, Invest Hong Kong, Hong Kong

than a self-defeating trade war’ added Charles
Tang, President, Brazil China Chamber ofCommerce, Brazil. ‘There are more opportunities for China and the US to work together on
topics such as climate change, vaccine summits,
RCEP agreement, opined Donny Huang,Founder, 4stones, China. ‘This is a geopolitical gamble – how to prevent a new cold war?’,asked Craig Allen, President, US-China
Business Council, USA.

The Greening of Blockchain
Bitcoins have to be created before use in
Blockchains: both are dependent on massive
computing power creating heavy pollution,
but which will work alone independent of
COVID-19. ‘Bitcoin processing uses 50 % global
data center demand and its CO2 footprint ismore than New Zealand’, commented
Sandeep Gulati, Founder of Vialogy Corp,
USA. Valmiki Mukherjee, Founder, Cyber
Future Foundation, USA, said ‘I am cautious
about the environmental impacts when the
power plants are closer to urban areas despite
the economic benefits.’ According to MarioAlberto Casiraghi, CFSO of Xfinite, UAE,
the Ethereum network is more energy efficientcompared to Bitcoin whilst Marta F. Belcher,Partner, Ropes & Gray, USA, spoke of Filecoin
as proof-of-spacetime as a ‘useful version of
proof-of-stake’.

20

Priya Samant chairing a panel on Entertainment as a Catalyst for Trade and Cultural Diplomacy

Preparing for an Entrepreneurial
Gale Post-COVID
Scott Mordell, CEO, YPO, USA, opened bystating, ‘All of our societies are being fed bybusiness or commerce in some form. One big
advantage in Asia is the agility and speed atwhich we can move and pivot with low cost.’
Adding to this, Minesh Pore, CEO, The
BuyHive, Hong Kong said ‘COVID-19 is theideal time for anybody to experiment.’ ‘SMEs
are the backbone of economies and this is agreat time to digitalize,‘ said Diana Sabrain,
Co-founder, OneAgrix, Singapore. Pina
Hirano, CEO, Asteria, Japan, commented,‘Companies need to be more human-centric’and ‘our tech sector need to rush to develop to
keep people happy.’ ‘Sustainability is a fieldthat is often overlooked but developing, as
Stanford is creating a course in Sustainability,
focusing on climate change,’ Greg Crichton,
Managing Director, Greater Asian Advisors
Limited, Hong Kong concluded.

Entertainment as a Catalyst for
Trade and Cultural Diplomacy
Entertainment has a lot to do with connection
and breaking down differences. ‘Borders oflanguage can cross religions and other barriers.’
opined Priya Samant, Impact Advisor, andDirector, Sequoia Applied Technologies, USA.
Cary Granat, Immersive Artistry, USA, said

Ben Goertzel, Chief Executive Officer,
SingularityNET, Hong Kong

Rosemary Tan, Founder and Creative Director,
Palam Mesra, Malaysia‘Watching incredible stories that take place indifferent places in the world allow us to havean emotional connection with that place.’
Boman Irani, Theatre and Film Actor, India,
added that ‘A good movie does not need subtitles to go across borders’ as the content isuniversal. Going deeper and using Pakistani
conflicts as context, Ali Sethi, Singer andWriter, Pakistan, further said that, ‘music hasdone what politicians have failed to do timeand again, as music has been able to provide asense of cohesion and reconcile differences.’

Asia: United in Diversity
Venky Vembu, Associate Editor, The Hindu
Business Line, India opened the panel stating,‘Asia is one of the most diverse regions. He
further advanced the discussion by asking thequestion and quoting ‘how can Asian countries
draw the commonalities that bind them andleverage the pluralism for great common goodin order to emerge stronger from post COVID
world?’ Nguyen Minh Vu, Vice Minister of
Foreign Affairs, Vietnam responded ‘In thepost COVID world our goal should be unity
in prosperity and should be valued on sharedvalues such as tolerance, equality, unity andshared concern’. Alma Ruby C. Torio, Assis tant Secretary for Curriculum & Instruction,
Department of Education, Philippines, men tioned that all nations should work together in

Binod K. Chaudhary, Chairman, Chaudhary Group, Nepal,
one of the meeting co-chairs

identifying the needs of learners, teaches andschools to help us embrace changes in the newnormal. Sansern Samalapa, Vice Minister ofCommerce, Thailand noted that Asia’s emerging
manufacturing hub in Thailand was mediated bygreater use of IT that promoted food security.

Asia and Global Economic Outlook:
Looking beyond COVID
According to Ben Goertzel, Chief Exe cutive Officer, SingularityNET, Hong Kong,‘globalization is not over. We are entering there-globalization era.’ ‘There are two pieces ofevidence: the historic RCEP agreement, thelargest Free Trade Agreement, IMF projected
next year global GDP growth will rebound
5.2 %,’ said Wang Dong, Executive Director,
Institute for Global Cooperation and Understanding, Peking University, China. ‘In thevaccine, medical and healthcare industry,
capital and technology work together efficiently
to respond to COVID-19 pandemic,’ added
George Li, Founder, Bridge Biohub, China.
Further, Rosemary Tan, Founder and Creative
Director, Palam Mesra, Malaysia, appealed to
Malaysian regulators and policymakers to open
borders and allow businesses to do more trade,
creating jobs for economic recovery. ‘On a
global basis’, Roger King, Founder andChair man, ODS Holdings Inc., Hong Kongconcluded saying, ‘We must recognize that21

Plenary ‘Reboot, Reform and Resurge the Indian Economy’ with Minister Nitin Gadkarieach country has some contribution to makeand how we can collaborate and work together.’

China and its New Economy
Martina Fuchs, Anchor, China Global
Television Network (CGTN), UK started thediscussion about China and its new economy byasking if China is a new economy or still an old
structured one. To this, Herbert Chen Wu,
Managing Director, The Economist Global
Business Review, China, said ‘China is a mixed
economy with the key challenge to growfurther. This challenge can be overcome by investing in digital and online services in B2B area
to create more jobs.’ Further, James Kynge,
Global China Editor, Financial Times and Editor,#techAsia, Hong Kong strongly believes that
China is leading many technology developments. In addition to that, Zhi Peng, President,
Tsinghua Asset Management Group, Chinaemphasized the importance of AI in changing
the lives and improving the industries in China.
‘This combined with government initiatives
and rapid development of capital markets build
a strong foundation for China to become anew economy,’ concluded David Pan, Execu tive Dean, Schwarzman College, Tsinghua
University, China

22

George Li, Founder and Managing Partner,
Bridge Biohub, China

Digital Transformation of thePhilippine Economy: Keynote by
Secretary Gregorio Honasan
Gregorio Honasan, Secretary of Infor mation and Communications Technology, The
Philippines made a point on how COVID-19
has created havoc and disruption in the country
and all over the world. The Philippines saw the
worst recession so far and businesses were shut,without knowing when they would resume.
Economic activity came to a standstill andunemployment increased. The Secretary said
he wishes to emphasize the fact that the global
health crisis has disrupted people’s lives in thePhilippines. 75 % of businesses were forced to
shut down and unemployment had reached ahigh of 17.7 %. A lot of strings have beenpulled to bring back businesses and ensure theywork smoothly with internet connectivity.
The Philippines has also implemented a
National Broadband Programme to enablepeople to connect in the digital economy.

Reboot, Reform and Resurge
the Indian Economy
The discussion of reforming the Indian economy was opened by Bindu Dalmia, National
Chairperson, Committee for Financial Inclusion, Niti Aayog, India stating, ‘We lag behindbadly in upskilling, keeping in mind that wehave to skill and reskill 40 crore people byAlma Ruby C. Torio, Assistant Secretary for
Curriculum and Instruction, The Philippines

James Kynge, Global China Editor, Financial
Times and Editor, #techAsia, Hong Kong SAR

2022, our talent pool is highly inadequate.
We need to use creative progressive taxation
to increase spending to make available Human
Resource.’ Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Road
Transport & Highways, Shipping and of Micro,
Small and Medium Enterprises, India, explai ned, ‘Our target is to take the Micro, Small andMedium Enterprises (MSME) contribution to
the economic growth from 30 % to 40 % andalso increase the MSME export from 48 % to
60 %. The government is also planning to create
5 crores more jobs from MSME sectors only.
It is also concentrating on village industries,
encouraging agro-processing industries anddevelopment in handicrafts industries.’

COVID is Temporally Hampering
Asian Innovation‘COVID has accelerated the change that isalready happening in Asia. With the relatively
successful management of COVID-19, Asia isventuring into an opportunity to lead out of thissituation’ stated F. Marek Modzelewski,
Advisor, Enso, USA. ‘Innovation needs invest ment, and investment requires confidence’David Milroy, CEO, Carissimi, Cyprus, theresponse, he further said, has created thisopportunity. ‘The pandemic is going to bringforward Asia’s leadership,’ said Navroop
Sahdev, Founder, The Digital Economist,
USA. The key is going to be how to makeMartina Fuchs, Anchor, China Global Television Network (CGTN),
charing the plenary on China

new innovation effective in this environment.
‘It is important that the human element is notmissed out,’ concluded RR Shibu, CEO,
Hatch Spaces, India.

Family Business: What is thenext Chapter post-COVID?
David Drake, Founder, LDJ Capital, USA,
opened the panel by speaking about investments
he has made in the fintech sector. He mentionedthat post-COVID-19 they will be focussing on
investments in BlockChain. Asher Noor, CIO,
Al Touq Group, Saudi Arabia stated, ‘we primarily invest in private equity space but havestarted looking at venture capital space as well.’
Sanjay Budhia, MD, Patton Group of Companies, India mentioned, ‘post COVID-19 wewill focus on manufacturing and expanding our
product and market range.’ Johan Nyvene,

Roger King, Founder and Chairman, ODS Holdings Inc., Hong Kong

23

Member of the Board, Ho Chi Minh City
Securities Corporation, Vietnam spoke about
his accomplishment and the growth of familybusinesses in Vietnam. He mentioned that theywould focus on tech-enabled sectors in the
future. Hiroyuki Ohnishi, CEO, Technology
Seed Incubation Co, Japan shared that their company is focused on developing new businesses
through management technologies. He said that
post-COVID-19 they will focus on sectors suchas agriculture, forestry and fisheries.

The New Role of Asian YouthPost-COVID‘The pandemic has undermined the confidenceof all, but this is the right moment for youth tobuild the new world,’ opened Peter Lazou,
Founding Member, Otherdots Foundation,
UK discussing the new role of Asian YouthPost-COVID. ‘The old ways of working are nolonger de facto. We are able to do things crossboundaries now – it is now acceptable not tosee people face-to-face which gives more
flexibility,’ said Sinartus Sosrodjojo, Value
Creation Advisor, Damson Capital, Singapore.
‘In many Asian societies, young people have toinfluence what we can do in this world. Buildingtrue empathy with other young people in Asia
through international experiences is crucial,’
Kevin Lee, COO, China Youthology, China
opined. ‘One of the best things is to empower
our youth, we are also voters with the ability
to create an impact in our world today,’Tannisha Avarrsekar, Founder, CEO,
Lokatantra, India stated.

Developing a Coherent
Digital Presence across Asia
Digitalization is present now more than ever.
Stephen Edkins, CEO, Rice Exchange,
Singapore, noted, ‘There has been a dramatic
acceleration to digitalization. These are excitingtimes and with a more efficient process in place,people will benefit more from this in the longrun.’ Ira Kiener, CEO, Dealogikal, The Phi lippines further emphasized stating, ‘Innovation

24

Shashi Tharoor, Chairman, Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology, India
in discussion with Futurist Benjamin Butler

capacity and entrepreneurial capacity is key
and must be supported with the necessary
ecosystem and infrastructure to help boost thetrade within the region.’ It has to be noted andcautioned however that ‘Digitization is becoming
increasingly important and with this, govern ments need to have a level playing field for all
the players in the market’ as emphasized by
Jarvous Chen, Sinda Corporation UK, UK.
Shikar Reddy, CEO, Sonata Software, India
concluded stating, ‘There has been a moredigital transformation in the past 9tailor fit thesolution for the problem at hand’

Artificial Intelligence and the
Future of Work post-COVID
There is optimism about the future of AI. The
concern is about how much data robots andmachines need to see things that humans don’t.
Countries will have to invest a lot to create newopportunities. Anuradha Agarwal, Founder,
Think North Consulting, India opened thepanel by asking, ‘Where do you see AI-first ?
How is the world-changing now? Has COVID
anticipated inevitable changes ?’ James Seng,
COO, VOY Robotics, Singapore, responded,‘AI is not a competitor of humans but asupport’. Michael Cheng, MD, Drum Tower
Ventures, China, further added, ‘AI is still ababy, we need to be patient before a big change
happens’. Arvind Sethumadhavan, Founder,Panel –The Global Vision of Asian Female Entrepreneurs

The AI Living Lab, Singapore too stated, ‘AI isalready in platforms and small things and we
don’t know it’. Kartik Sharma, Co-founder,
DcodeAI, India, concluded by stating, ‘People
are yet not trained enough about AI, this is aproblem’.

Profit and Purpose in the Pandemic
Highlight the profits and purposes during the
pandemic, Tatsuya Masubuchi, CEO,HighNetWorthLab, Japan opened, ‘the purpose
comes first and the profit follows, whether or
not there is a pandemic.’ According to Jayanta
Poddar, Managing Director, Decorazzi Paints &Coatings, India, ‘purpose and profit go together
and now, it is important to shift your focus frompanic to purpose.’ Also, ‘we need to take carethat in our investments we are not passing themoney into wrong channels,’ added UweMichel, Executive Vice President, Allianz,
Germany. However, Tatiana Kazakova, CoFounder, Leaders on Purpose, UK said ‘We go
through a phase of trade-off before a phase ofbalance.’ ‘Historically we have had Westernvalues as dominant. Now that Asia is taking
center stage, it is important to look at what
purpose before profits means from an Asian perspective,’ opined Nkem Khumbah, Chairman,
Africa Development Futures Group, USA.

Suresh Kumar, Chief Principal Secretary,
State of Punjab, India

The Global Vision of Asian
Female Entrepreneurs
Jenny Yang, CFO, Grand Alphatech Inter na tional Corp., The Philippines, opened the panel
stating, ‘It has to start with a mindset. Women
tend to have a self-limiting mindset.’ ‘We are
more open-minded than before’ Ren Zu, FCO
Chevening Scholar, AIA Insurance, China, added.
‘If you want to have enough space to think
and move forward, you need to connect withyour inner heart,’ mentioned Kelly Zhang,CEO, Everfortune Family Office, China.
Further, Mei Chen, Founder, Cosmic Citizens,
China stated, ‘We have the ability to empower
ourselves. If you have this key message, you
would shine inward.’

New World Disorder
Shashi Tharoor, Chairman, ParliamentaryStanding Committee on Information Technology, India, discussed his book which sets thescene with ‘An international community
stumbling into the 3 decades of the century
amid much uncertainty and anxiety’. Authoredpre-COVID this focuses on the reduction of
agency both within countries and between
countries creating tensions. Highlighting theworld outgrowing its governing institutions,NGO’s and the growth of nationalism,
Benjamin J Butler, Independent Futurist,
Hong Kong said ‘COVID-19 happened to be the25David Pan, Executive Dean, Schwarzman College,
Tsinghua University, China

catalyst.’ To move forward he suggested that theworld needs to move from its focus on GDP to
the triple bottom line of profit, people, planet.
The conversation then focused on Asia’s role andthe possibility of the Asian century, commenting this will be hampered by Asian infighting.

The New-Old Trade Corridors
Ikram Sehgal, Chairman, Pathfinder Group,
Pakistan opened the discussion on The New-Old
Trade Corridors, stating, ‘Actual vision started
55 years ago when China wanted a route to
the Middle East. If we hold a decent conver sation within South Asia, connectivity will haveenor mous benefits.’ Adding to this, Chitra
Narayanan, Founder, ACN Strategies, Switzerland said ‘I believe this will bring opportunities
for countries that did not have them before,
with the right meticulous oversight.’ ‘There isa benefit for all involved; we learn from eachother, respect each other.’ said Megan Jing Li,
Founder, Shanghai iMega Industry Co., China‘China wishes to work together for the benefitof humankind. Our government is promoting
companies to do business in Southeast Asia,
Africa, and Europe.’ Will Liao, Co-Founder,
Seventh Technology, China further stated.
Bill Nguyen, Founder ABS Institute, Vietnam
then concluded by saying, ‘My country canbenefit from collaboration with companies in
China and India.’26

Clas Neumann, Senior Vice President, Fast
Growth Market Strategy, SAP

Wang Dong, Executive Director, Institute for
Global Cooperation and Understanding, Peking

Cooperation between Asian Cities
The population of Asian cities is rapidly
growing. Through Asian cities’ cooperation,
ravages like COVID-19 may be quelled.‘Cities
within China work together supporting cities
having COVID-19 spikes with medical response
and care’, Peggy Tse, Chief Strategy Officer,
Future City Summit, China opened. Peter
Portheine, Director, Eindhoven International
Project Office, The Netherlands further added,‘Transforming built homes with high energy
consumption to energy-efficient residences isharder and costly. Big metropolitans shall consider surrounding areas for its transformationand connect with these areas at a regional level.
Contained regions should spur economic recovery.’ ‘Travel bubbles are created between
cities for air travel, less excessive testing
requirements should apply,’ Amit Midha,
Asia Pacific & Japan, Global Digital Cities,
Dell Technologies, Singapore, informed.

Implanting Industry 4.0
into the Future
Sunanda Chak, COO, 4 Minute Mile Marke ting Services, India spoke about how Industrial
Revolution 4.0 is to bring automation to thecenter stage. Clas Neumann, Senior Vice President, SAP, China mentioned about using data,
automation and machines for operations have
proven to work however there is still too much

Similarly, Sunday Adeojo, Co-Founder,
Biodry2Energy, UK, urged all to remain calmand focused.

Technology: Harnessing
the Potential to Disrupt

Joji Tagawa, Chief Sustainability Officer,
Nissan Motor, Japan

Ananda Setiyo Ivannanto, President Director,
A-Wing Indonesia (Awina), Indonesia

work to be done for the integration of data, technology and machines. Further, B. Thiagarajan,
MD, Blue Star Limited, India said ‘India’s Prime
Minister has now focussed on self-reliant India
and wants to position as the next destination for
manufacturing or what is called as China plus
one strategy.’ Talking about Japan’s perspective
on Industry 4.0, Shin Ito, CEO, iKoyoo Inc,
Japan said ‘Industrial revolution 4.0 is a long
way to go for Japanese manufacturers specificallyfor the automotive sector since companies like
Toyota and Nissan suffered a lot due to disconnect between cyberspace and physical spaceparticularly in the supply chain.’

Cluster Entrepreneurship:
Overcoming the Negative Impact
of COVID‘Because of COVID-19, the entrepreneurial
ecosystem has been disrupted,’ opened
Deborah Biber, Board Member, Pacific Basin
Economic Council, Hong Kong. ChristianRangen, Co-founder, Engage // Innovate,
Norway, shared, ‘what’s to expect in 2030 has
largely unfolded within the past 6 months andhence cluster entrepreneurship is vital forcountrywide economics in future.’ Andrea
Monni, Co-founder, Blue Spark Hub, Singa pore was of the view that ‘it is necessary tomove from panic to risk-based approach.’

There are different opinions about the use oftechnology and the power of disruption.
Disruption and innovations are different but
for some disruption is key, for others it is secondary. Surely, in these unprecedented times,
technology and sustainability have to collaborate
to create disruption. Terry von Bibra, Director, Numenos, Germany, said ‘Disruption
itself is nothing but about people being obsessedwith making things better.’ Adam Jacoby,
Chief Steward, MiVote, Australia further added,‘Tech is the enabler, not the disruptor’. Amir
Yaar, CEO, CISH Asia Pacific, Hong Kong too
stated, ‘Tech to me is essential to survive, it is
not only an application but the key to change’.
Girish Ramachandan, President Asia Pacific,
TCS, Singapore concluded by saying, ‘This is a
moment of opportunities to make tech andsustainable approach the keys to disrupting.’

Pivot or Stay the Course?
According to Farzanah Chowdhury, Managing Director and CEO, Green Delta Insurance,
Bangladesh COVID-19 has disrupted normal
workflows and entrepreneurs from Asia andacross the world. ‘While existing operating
models are coming under pressure, entrepreneurs need to balance staying agile and pivoting
when needed,’ added Ravi Kapur, Managing
Director, Absolute Security & Facility Management, India. Vincent Djen, Director, Cheng
Kung Garments, China was of the opinion thatcurrent customers became less valuable due to
COVID-19 pressures and decided to actively
pursue new customers. He advised to ‘stay
positive, find a trend in your industry, andreally go at it.’ Ryan Tan, MD, NAVCO, The
Philippines, further added, ‘in a crisis, noteverything is in decline, there is always something that is rising.’ Yoon Li Yoong, MD, Royal27

Selangor International, Malaysia instead of pi voting focused on strengthening relationships
with customers and transitioning to being
online-first. According to George Gan,
Founder, Silicon and Sand, Malaysia, the pandemic has taught him that the truth is within us
and gives us the opportunity to contemplatemany issues.

Voice of the Voicelessin Times of Crisis
Kaitu'u 'i Pangai Funaki, Founder, The
Dignified Pacific Initiative (DPI), Tonga started
the discussion by positioning a difference/ex clusivity in terms of competition where the‘winner takes it all.’ Joy Ugomma Amahah,Managing Director, Brozom Jp-Ng, Nigeriaemphasized ‘highlighting the differences in theworld has shocking results rather than focusing
on similarities has a “safe” feeling effect.’
Therefore, the process of under standing thedifferences is very important to realize theunique strength. Ananda Setiyo Ivannanto,
President Director, A-Wing Indonesia (Awina),
Indonesia, added ‘the role of COVID on sustainability with a focus on limited resources
which in his view is a very important topic
especially in Asia.’ As far as interdependencies
are concerned, Sabriya Naamani, University
Lecturer in Management and Work Psychology,
Oman, stressed the importance of being humanand understanding each other to overcome crises
such as COVID. Moeko Takagi, Global Partnership Manager, Analyzelog, Japan, concluded
by saying that we have to give voices to the
Voiceless in Times of Crisis.

IE University China Center presents joint report on Family Businesses
in China with Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business
IE University co-organized the Horasis Asia
Meeting which gathered more than 400 of theforemost business and political leaders from
Asia and the world to overcome the profoundeconomic, political and social disruptions

caused by COVID-19. During the meeting,
IE China Center presented a join report with
Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business
Understanding Family Businesses in China: thePath, the Trend, and the Future, examining therole of private family-run enterprises and thechallenges they face in the near future.
Since China’s economic reforms in 1978,huge numbers of private family enter prises
have been set up and now play a major role in
the economy. Many statistical sources suggests
the contribution of the private sector to GDP
in China has grown to at least 60 % in recent
years, of which 85 % are from family-owned
private enter prises, making a major contribution toward technological innovation, as wellas creating jobs. Now, with the post-pandemic
economic recovery, private family-run enterprises in China play a more significant role thanever before.

Ma Bin, Professor of Leadership, IE University, Spain28

‘This report follows on Chinese vs. European
Entrepreneurship: A comparison published by IE
China Center in October 2019. In both cases,
the aim is to shed light on what we believe willcontinue to be one of the pillars of the global
economy – regardless of ongoing change –namely family businesses and start-ups, and all
this from the perspective of China, which willplay a key role in this new century’, said Felix
Valdivieso, Chairman of IE China Center.

Chinese family business owners show a highdegree of confidence in a return to normality,
based on their expectations of both a relatively
short recovery period and effective assistancepolicies initiated by the government. This confidence is also built upon the cultural valuesof collectivism (e.g., prioritizing family andfriends as financial sources) and a long-term
outlook (e.g., maintaining high levels of saving)common to Chinese society.

‘Based on the records of 338 companies during
a five-year time span, we have been able toachieve a more complete under standing offamily businesses in China and their role in the
country’s economic success, while anticipatingsome developmental patterns for the near
future’, said Dr. Bina Ma, Academic Directorof IE China Center.

Meanwhile, cultural values are also expected toshape the post-pandemic strategies of Chinesefamily businesses in terms of setting long-term
visions and strategic goals, building synergy
with business partners, reserving more cash
flow for risk control, developing a close relationship with the government based on trust,and so on. Thus, the report predicts a relatively
fast recovery of Chinese family businesses fromthe COVID-19 pandemic. In general, Chinese
culture still play an influential role in the way
Chinese family businesses are run, an under standing of which is a must for any Westerncompany looking to create partnerships.

Among the report’s main conclusions, Dr. Bin
Ma points out, that Chinese family businesses
have shown steady and healthy growth over last
four decades becoming a key driver of Chinese
economic development. However, the COVID-19
pandemic has posed a huge challenge, and ageneral setback for family business development is expected in China. Similar influential
patterns have also been observed in othercountries, showing growth for internet-based
businesses such as distance education platforms,
online retailers and gaming, etc.

Dr. Xinyu Fan, Assistant Professor of Economics at Cheung Kong Graduate School ofBusiness, believes this is a unique opportunity
for a ‘double transformation’. On the one
hand, next generation of entrepreneurs use
their knowledge and passion for technology
to embrace and advocate for the digital transformation of their family businesses, while
accumulating authority, technical expertise, andmanagement skills in the process. On the other
hand, digital transformation can facilitate thetransformation of family businesses, as thenext generation of entrepreneurs exemplifies
their qualities and vision for the future.

Fan Xinyu, Assistant Professor of Economics,
Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business29

Navroop Sahdev, Founder and Chief Executive Officer,
The Digital Economist

Report Launch: Understanding
Family Businesses in China

Tomohiko Taniguchi, Professor, Keio University
Graduate School of System Design

Nasser Munjee, Chairman,
Development Credit Bank, India

Capital, Japan. The Japanese economy has
shrunk rapidly as it battles the COVID pande Felix Valdivieso, Chairman, IE China Center, mic. ‘A sense of crisis is required. Stringent
Spain, opened the session questioning family
regulations including personal data protection
businesses’ future. He reckoned, ‘some things hinder new business opportunities,’ commented
remain unchanged. I think there would still be Toshihiro Toyoshima, Mercuria Investment
family businesses around the world.’ Ira Zaka, Co, Japan. ‘We better not apply too much
Assistant Director, CKGSB, China, explained localization if we are trying to accelerate DX’,
the roles, challenges, and oppor tunities that
added Tomohiko Taniguchi, Professor, Keioplay an important role for family businesses
University Graduate School of System Designin China. Fan Xinyu, Assistant Professor ofand Management, Japan. ‘Although the diffiEconomics, CKGSB, China, touched on theculty of decision-making is still lingering, we
economic contribution and cultural perspec - have seen many initiatives to further changetives of family businesses in China. Margaret the Japanese economy,’ concluded Noritaka
Kobayashi, Founder, Bajji, Inc, Japan.
Chen, Founder, Optimus Horizon, Spain,
raised the succession issue wherein there is thereluctance of the younger generation to takeover. She said the ‘One child policy’ contributed Post-COVID Marketing – Local vsInternational Branding
to this phenomenon. To summarize well thisWith 30 % of trades being affected, global comtopic, Professor Fan said ‘I think character
panies are reinventing themselves to survive.
matters.’ He said it was all about what familybusinesses can contribute beyond economic
It is interesting to see what each company iscontributions and he said ‘I think the key ele - doing on a local and global scale. Some local
ment is the character or image of enterprises brands are becoming more credible than the
global ones due to higher quality checks andfull of social responsibilities.’
fewer volumes but some international brands
embraced the change and are still running a
Accelerating Japanese Economic
business in a good way. Xavier Prabhu,
Dynamism to combat COVID
Founder, PRHUB, India, asked ‘How do you‘You need to find out who you want to negoti- see the companies making strategies now, isate with to accelerate business with Japanese
local branding stronger than international brancompanies. Do your homework,’ opened
ding?’. Echo Zhao, CEO, LAT Group, USA,
Shun Nagao, Venture Partner, White Star
answered saying, ‘What I see is the acceleration
30

Secretary Ramon Lopez, Secretary Christopher Hui, Norman Pearlstine, Frank-Jürgen Richterof E-commerce due to COVID. The same happened after SARS when Digital operation started
to be more demanded.’ Patrick Michael,CEO, R3present, UK, concluded saying, ‘It is
important to market yourself in each country
like Nike does. It shows that building a big
brand is about the small details.’

The Remote Manager:
Coping Post-COVID
Work from home is something that is not newand something that nowadays, everyone isaccustomed to. ‘The Work from Home setup
gave people a lot of flexibility. In order for this
to work, we need to proactively educate ourselves and our employees to avoid breaches
and improper use of technology,’ said
Svetlana Kamyshanskaya, Startup Advisor,
Primum Law Group, USA. ‘Managing people
remotely is for sure challenging but you needto have the proper tools in place in order to be
successful and to collaborate,’ added Antonio
Cantalapiedra, CEO, Woonivers, Spain.
‘COVID-19 has forced us to use technologythat was already in place. There will be a shift
to distributing work and we need to thinklong and hard whether a hybrid model will beadvantageous to be implemented in someshape and form moving forward,’ concluded
Nasser Munjee, Chairman, Development
Credit Bank, India

Harry Hui, Founder and Managing Partner,
ClearVue Partners, China

Co-Developing Asian Regions
Post-COVID
While discussing Co-Developing Asian Regions
Post-COVID, panelists spoke on focusing on
two things when considering the acceleration ofdigital transformation: home-based schoolingand focus on small businesses. They touched
on a few themes: I) signs of Government andentities promoting joint efforts: ASEAN to spur
region-wide co-operation to rebuild pandemic
hit economies, II) strategic rivalry between
some of the players will continue to drive a‘disaster diplomacy’ and III) challenges inachieving inclusive development. They all agreed
that post-COVID will open doors for a new
economy, value chains are changing, providing
a lot of opportunity for manufacturing anddeveloping countries.

Supporting Cross-boundary
Entrepreneurship
Discussing the cross-boundary entrepreneurship, Joses Lo-Chang Hsiung, Founder, andCEO Winnoz Technology, Taiwan opened
stating, ‘With the current economic conditions,multiple streams of funding sources of investment should be very important to keep a company moving forward.’ Yukiko Ito, Founder,and CEO, Zest Inc., Japan, added, ‘If you know
investors well enough then meeting virtually is
not a problem. It is key to be flexible and31Miki Ebara, Chief International Correspondent, NHK World, Japan

Leo Samosir, Senior Anchor, Metro TV,
Indonesia

adaptable.’ ‘In biotech, there is a surge ofinterest from institutional investors and Covid19 highlighted the importance of research andworking on the new medicine,’ said Angela
Huang, Founder and President, Tempo
Bioscience, USA. Pieter Perrett, Professor,
University of Applied Sciences Northwestern
Switzerland, Switzerland concluded by stating,‘We focused expertly on expanding crossborders without face-to-face communication
with the right connections.’

Gibasiewicz, CEO, SATIS, Poland said thatthe pandemic has increased the business risk
more than one can imagine and they have to
make changes in the work organization.

The Asian CEO in an Age of Disruption
Luis Miguel Aboitiz, Director, Aboitiz & Co,
The Philippines started by mentioning that,‘COVID-19 has enabled us to digitize the documentation part in the real estate sector and is
the way forward in post COVID world.’
Further, Ken Soh, CEO, Athena Dynamics,
Singapore, added, ‘Due to COVID-19, there
is a big shift of business from one sector toanother. Sectors such as online delivery, logistics and even gym machines have been doing
well while on the other hand sectors such as
Airline, Travel and F &B have taken a hit.’
Sonu Shivdasani, Founder, Soneva, Thailand
said that they have found COVID-19 beneficial
for their business since they relooked at re sources, skills and competencies they haveand how they can generate alternate sourcesof revenue beyond their properties. Dariusz

32

Vijay Eswaran, Executive Chairman, QI Group,Hong Kong

Talent Mobility in APAC
under COVID and Beyond
According to Louise Neal, Chief Executive
Officer, Easy Tiger Executive Search, United
Kingdom, COVID-19 is having a significant
impact on how global and Asian companies
address talent mobility, testing their ability tostrengthen investment in human resources. ‘For
the Gen Y profile, employee-initiated/voluntary
moves have become an additional driver in
corporate mobility,’ said Avrom Goldberg,
Senior Vice President, Weichert Workforce
Mobility, Hong Kong. ‘Prior to COVID-19, there
was an average of a 2 fold increase year on year
for talent mobility,’ added Shumin Yeo, Senior
Manager of Global Mobility and Immigration,
Micron Technology, Singapore. ‘With borderclosings and openings, it raises costs for global
mobility teams. It is important to be flexible
and agile, to be able to handle the impact ofthese changes,’ said Michael Johnsen, Vice
President Asia Pacific, Arpin International
Group, Singapore. ‘Assignments may be restricted, as companies may be reluctant to extend
budgets for extended institutional quarantinesand fees associated with vaccination,’ concludedDinesh Joshi, Chairman and Managing
Director, SatyaGiri Ventures, India

Kenji Yokoyama, Vice-President, Ritsumeikan
Asia Pacific University, Japan

Cindy Hilliar, Vice President, Global Service
Delivery and Operations, Newland Chase, UK.

Indonesia’s Transformation
into a Digital Economy‘Indonesia is currently advancing its Vision ofIndonesia in 2045,’ explained Peter Shearer
Setiawan, Chief Executive Officer, Wahyoo,
Indonesia. In this plan, the Ministry of Infor mation and Communication is to accelerate its
Indonesia Digital Transformation by the endof 2021 connecting thousands of villages withhigh-speed networks. ‘Digital transformation isa must to accelerate economic recovery, boost
job creation, speed up 4.0. industry revolution’,opined Meutya Viada Hafid, Chairman ofCommission I, House of Representatives, Indonesia. The prerequisite of the digital economy
is internet connectivity. To speed up digitaltransformation, the Indonesian government
focuses on connecting the last 12,500 villages
with 4G, policy and regulation for infrastruc ture sharing by operators, application and data
security, and developing digital literacy andtalents as operators, users, developers.
‘The biggest challenge is how to connect the
17,000 islands; Indonesia covers all technology:
terrestrial, cellular, and satellite connectivity,’
concluded Leo Samosir, Senior Anchor,
Metro TV, Indonesia.

Norman Pearlstine, Executive Editor, Los Angeles Times, USA,
chairing the opening plenary

The Impact of the US Elections
across Asia
The 2020 US elections were held on
3rd November. The discussion was opened by
Ron Somers, CEO, India First Group, USA.
He said ‘The pandemic made us think how de pendent we are. India would play a major role
to disperse vaccines to the world.’ ‘We need tolook at the world as a market instead of China
only,’ Vijay Eswaran, Executive Chairman,
QI Group, Hong Kong. Further, Harry Hui,
Founder and Managing Partner, ClearVue Partners, China, opined, ‘Decoupling should be
re-defined in terms of diversification. It’s not azero-sum game.’ ‘Biden administration is more
open to have bilateral dialogue with China.
Whether he gets a second term, it depends

Nick van Dam, Chief Learning Officer, IE Chief Center Learning
Innovations, chairing a IE Masterclass

33

on

George Gan, Chief Executive Officer and Founder,
Silicon and Sand, Malaysia

how to handle this issue.’ Gunjan Sinha,
Chairman, MetricStream, USA said. ‘We cannot
forget the rest of Asian countries except China
and India when we talk about the US-Asia relationship.’ Cod Satrusayang, Editor in Chief,
Thai Enquirer, Thailand, concluded.

Shaping the Asian Century
Post-COVID
The challenges within Asia will need to beaddressed to unlock the Asia century. ‘Asia is
poised to become half of this world; everyone
knows this,’ said Binod K. Chaudhary, Chairman, Chaudhary Group, Nepal. ‘Globalization
will need to undergo a change in the model. The
new model will need to balance the country’s
interests with global interests’, added Harsh
Pati Singhania, VC, JK Paper; President,
President AIMA, India. ‘What this situation has
created is to look at how economic leaders
reposition themselves to the socioeconomic
leaders – this is the opportunity and the chal lenge,’ commented Vinod Sekhar, Chair man,
Petra Group, Malaysia. The conclusion andpotential solution to this challenge were sha red by Frank-Jürgen Richter, Chairman,
Horasis, Switzerland, who said ‘We need astrong Asia and strong countries like India andChina working together, digitization might be
the hope.’

34

Rosalind Mathieson, Executive Editor, International Government News, Bloomberg
and Frank-Jürgen Richter during the Closing

Summary: Expectations Beyond
COVID – An Asian View
The moderator for this session, Frank-Jürgen
Richter, Chairman, Horasis, Switzerland, began by stating that an Asian view from a scientificangle can solve the COVID pandemic within
Asia. However, he further said ‘it is important
to note that we need unity within the diversity
in Asia’. Speaker Rosalind Mathieson, Exe cutive Editor, International Government News,
Bloomberg, UK said ‘countries are battling
further waves of the virus. The damage has been
incredible due to the virus. It is interesting to
see the greater engagement in Asia with Europe,and with Canada which will probably be seen
more of in the coming future.’

IE Masterclass: Positive Leadership
Practices during Times of Turbulence
In this masterclass, Nick van Dam, Chief
Learning Officer, IE Chief Center Learning
Innovations, IE University, Spain shared theories
and traits of positive leadership. He said ‘The
future looks bright regarding vaccines, oppor tunities for energy transition, exciting and morehuman workplace culture and leadership styles,
and amazing technological solutions to reinvent
business models. A lot of humans will work withrobots, moving forward, and the robots willaugment what we are doing in the workplace.’
Several examples of positive leadership, such

Harsh Pati Singhania, Vice Chairman andManaging Director, JK Paper, President AIMA

as Cod Satrusayang, Managing Editor,

Sujata Koirala, Former Deputy Prime Minister, Nepal

Asia News Network, Thailand

empathetic listening, growth mindset, positive
communication, engagement, and flow. Also headded, ‘building trust is crucial as a lot of us areworking from home.’ It is important to moveaway from a fixed mindset and develop a growthmindset. ‘People with a growth mindset embracechange and see efforts as a path to mastery.’

How to Catch an Asian Unicorn?

Bernard Moon, Co-founder, and Partner,
SparkLabs Group, USA, opened by stating,‘depending on where demographically you arefocused, the startup scene is not really affected.’
He further added, ‘live Demo days in Korea are
still happening despite the pandemic and it islike business as usual.’ Hidetoshi Uchiyama,
Unerry, Japan, countered however that, ‘in
Why Asia is the Champion
Japan, since domestic demand is weak, theof Globalization
startup inbound tourism industry has been
The panel discussion on Asia being the champion severely affected.’ Nalin Singh, COO, Orbitof Globalization was opened by Bill Douglass, Future Academy, India, further opined,
Founder, Gotham Private Capital, USA by men - ‘unicorns can wait out the pandemic and cometioning the Regional Comprehensive Economic out strong.’ To this, Mikhail Treyvisch, PrePartnership (RCEP) as strong development in sident, OmniGrade Universal Crowdsourcing
terms of globalization. Subsequently, Rafael Agency, Russia, responded, ‘crisis is a mix of
Cascales, President, Spanish Acocex, Spain, risks and opportunities. For unicorns in par ticular, in the future, companies can look at
provided further examples of Vietnam andChina which in his opinion will be the only eco- affected industries for disruptions. The crisis
nomies with positive GDPs this year. Another is a chance to reinvent and can be an oppor tu economy relevant for the region was India
nity for future unicorns.’ All panelists agreed
which did not want to participate in RCEP in to this.
order to not ‘be flooded by Chinese products’and ‘stick with the US’. In view of Yurong Li,
ESG Investing in Asia Post-COVID
CEO, Lipatech, USA, Asian economies are
impacting the global economy significantly. She Speaking about ESG Investing in Asia Postprovided Africa and some other Asian countries COVID, Joël Ruet, Chairman, TheBridgeTank,
as examples in this context. Rafael Cascales
France commented, ‘ESG investing in Asia isinteresting because of COVID, and the longadded the role of China as a leader of Asianterm trends that are developing.’ ‘What has
countries in shaping the global economy byexerting a strong role in supporting the WTO. been striking is the pace at which mainstream

35

Paul Scanlan, Chief Transformation Officer, Huawei, China

Courtney Fingar, Editor-in-chief,
Investment Monitor, United Kingdom

capital is pivoting towards accepting ESG
principles,’ added Rajiv Lall, Chairman,
IDFC Bank, India. However, ‘there is a needfor standardization of risks and exposure andmanagement,’ Ara Brutian, Director,
Sustainalytics, Canada opined. ‘While the trend
is extremely positive, harmonizing regulations
across the world is a big task. Having said that,
it is encouraging to see full attendance at task
force (on climate disclosure) meetings,’ Arun
Kumar Sharma, President, Grovepike Associates, USA, said. ‘China is very committed toclimate change. It is investing a lot of its pandemic stimulus package on clean energy, EVs,
and infrastructure to lower carbon emissions,’
concluded, Kai Dai, CEO, Young Sustainable
Impact (YSI) Greater China.

way very soon though, as investments are muchhigher than before.’ Li Xu, Founder, Inter national Mergers & Acquisitions, USA said
‘Mane Venture Capitalist will focus more on theenvironment.’ Sebright Chen, Chairman,
Summer Atlantic Capital, USA, further added,‘As an investor, I focus on long term returns but
never forget the short term results. Nowadays
the support of universities when it comes to
R&D is essential to solving technologicaluncertainties.’

Ron Somers, Founder and Chief Executive Officer,
India First Group, USA

Business-Led Solutions
for a Changing Asia
‘Asia is leading the way in terms of economic
recovery’, opened Courtney Fingar, Editor-inchief, Investment Monitor, UK, ‘as Europe andRe-shaping Asia’s Environmental
Venture Capital Industry
COVID-19 accelerated an inevitable process
and different countries are acting differently.
Wilton Chau, Founder, Pan Asia Venture
Development Platform, Hong Kong, asked,‘As an investor, where should you focus on themost during the pandemic?’ Suman Bose,
Co-founder, GoFar Advisory and Investments,
Singapore, answered, ‘In my experience, European investors are much more credible andcommitted. They realized the environmental
impact we are having. I expect Asia to lead theVinod Sekhar, Chairman and Group Chief Executive Officer,
Petra Group, Malaysia

36

Avi Basu, Chief Executive Officer and Founder,
Wingsure

Tan Yinglan, Founding Managing Partner,
Insignia Ventures Partners, Singapore

USA are still coping with dramatically rising
COVID cases,’ he added. Yonah A. Welker,
Founder, Yonah Fund, USA, said ‘Asia has thepotential to connect the dots among talent,
technology, and capital as it is an enormous
source of innovation and technology.’‘COVID-19 has accelerated the adoption oftechnology and also exacerbated the digital
divide,’ opined Payal Dalal, Senior Vice President, Social Impact, International Markets,
Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth.
‘Sharing excess capacity is something businesses
can do to reach out to people who are struggling,’ Kanesan Veluppillai, Partner, INSYNQ
Partners Group, Malaysia, suggested. ‘Also,
engagement with the society that goes beyond
products has to be the core of a company especially since responsible consumerism is on therise,’ Noel Akpata, CEO, Stratex Pro, Nigeria,
concluded.

Murat Seitnepesov, Chairman, Caspian Week, making a pointhydrocarbons. Iran is a market of about 80 million people offering access to nearby markets
too. Ferial Mostofi, Chairwoman, China-Iran
Chamber of Commerce, Hong Kong said
‘Natural gas will play an important role. We
must understand the role of the caspian region,in the energy industry it has a huge role to play.’
Further, Marco Passalia, Member of Parliament of Ticino, Switzerland, commented,‘there are pipelines under construction, but
this is a very geo-political issue. There is potential beyond natural gas to processing activities
to produce other products.’

Horasis Young Visionaries

Young Visionaries are trying to make an impact
despite hard times and they are the leaders of
the future. Tiffany Tong, CEO, Aeloi, Nepal,
began by stating, ‘It is hard to continue businesses as micro finances have been reduced andfor some loans are a burden’. Anikori Niimi,
The Greater Caspian Region:
CEO, ACA Investments India, Japan, said
Spearheading Shared Leadership‘There is a true financial issue, shortage of
According to Murat Seitnepesov, Chairman, capital for everyone. We are looking for the
Caspian Week, Switzerland, the Greater Caspian right solution.’ Vivian Lim, Co-founder,
Region has always been at the crossroads of
Women in Asia, Singapore, then added,
geopolitical and economic interests of a number ‘A hard situation generates opportunities.
of major powers. Iran is based in a strategic
Inclusivity in the new normal will be fundalocation and the Caspian Sea is important for it. mental.’ Thanakorn Phromyos, Founder and
It is in the Caspian Sea that 600,000 mt of fish CEO, YoungHappy, Thailand, said ‘Anotherare caught every year, and it is a huge source of challenge brought by Covid is mental health.

37

Kenji Kitahashi, Mayor of Kitakyushu, Japan

This is actually a problem also in normal times’.
Yonca Braeckman, Co-Founder and Chief
Executive Officer, Impact Shakers, Portugal‘The future is about collaboration’. Thanakorn
Phromyos concluded, ‘We have to work acrossgenerations.’

The City of Kitakyushu (Japan) will host the 2021 Horasis Asia Meeting

38

Kitakyushu welcomes members of the Horasis Community

Announcing the 2021
Horasis Asia Meeting
Kenji Kitahashi, Mayor of Kitakyushu, Japan
introduced himself. He mentioned that theHorasis meeting that was scheduled to take placein Kitakyushu City has been postponed to 2021
due to the impact of COVID-19. He also statedthat they have put together a video that will
give you all a feel of the city and show you what
Kitakyushu City has to offer.

Panel – Reducing Trade Friction between Asian Nations Post COVID-19

Horasis conducted several Community Building sessions during the summit

Panellists used executive polls to illustrate trends and impact

Networking during the Horasis Asia Meeting

Mei Chen, Founder, Cosmic Citizens, China conducted a mindful breathing session recover from the intellectual input after a packed day

39How to get involved
Horasis meetings are supported by selected partner companies that contribute their expertise and resources
to Horasis by setting the agenda of its meetings. Our partners share with us the belief that the future can only
be inspired through joint efforts within a visions community.
The following partnership schemes are currently on offer:
Global Partner

Strategic Partner

Knowledge Partner

Networking Partner

Duration

1 year

One meeting

One meeting

One meeting

Meetings

All of one year

One meeting

One meeting

One meeting

Logo

Main backdrop
Alongside Horasis logo

Side backdrop

Side backdrop

Booth

Booth in registration area

Speaking slots

Introducing a politician(Global, Asia, India, China)

Chairing a plenary session Chairing a plenary session
Chairing a dialogue session Chairing a dialogue session Chairing a dialogue session

Further offerings Hosting of a reception

Presenting the Award

Delegates

5

10

Please contact Horasis for further information.
40

Hosting a coffee break

3

2

Horasis: The Global Visions Community
Maurerstrasse 2
CH-8500 Frauenfeld
Switzerlandphone +41 79 305 3110
fax +41 71 686 50 59
www.horasis.org